1847.] JgricuUure of JVew York. 135 



one rock to another. This movement has extended the bounda- 

 ries of the wheat region many miles to the south, especially in 

 the direction of the valleys. We will venture to copy what is 

 said of the final cause of this movement, or as it is expressed in 

 the text, the the final cause of diluvial action. 



" What was the cause of this transaction? It may be irrele- 

 vant to the purposes of this essay to discuss the bearing of a 

 question of this nature; still we hope it will not be found unpro- 

 fitable to offer one or two remarks upon it. As in numberless 

 instances of less magnitude than this, we are impressed with the 

 idea that some special design was manifested by the accomplish- 

 ment of an event, some general good secured by it, and that this 

 good had reference to the benefits of man ; so we are now to seek 

 what beneficent design is manifested, what great and general 

 good has been secured, and what benefits have enured to the hu- 

 man race, through the change wrought upon the surface of our 

 planet by the mighty upheavals, and subsidences, and currents, 

 which have converted sea into land, and land into sea. Among 

 these benefits, no inconsiderable one appears to come from the 

 mechanical effect of the drift upon the strata. Fractures and up- 

 lifts had rendered the earth's surface rough and rugged, broken 

 and uneven; so much so, indeed, that it would have been but a 

 sorry field for cultivation, and for the habitation of man. Hence 

 we regard the drift period as having been designed "for the purpose 

 of polishing down the broken strata, and for removing their 

 roughness and their asperities; while at the same time a vast 

 amount of new soil was produced by the same operation, and 

 mixed and spread widely over the surface, serving thereby to in- 

 crease the depth of the soil, and fill up many irregularities which 

 then existed. Such we regard as an epitome of the final cause of 

 diluvial action. 



" Inspection of strata, and an inspection of the matters resting 

 upon them, especially if we look to their condition, prove that 

 rocks have been deeply worn, their angles obliterated, and 

 smoothed, the joint effects of which have been to remove asperi- 

 ties and make the earth's surface smooth, and less rugged, and 

 hence far better adapted to the habitation of intelligent beings 

 than if it had been left in its early broken condition. 



" This view is favored too by the fact that the movement of the 

 soils, or diluvial action, was one of the last great geological 

 changes which has modified and given form to the earth's surface. 

 "We therefore enjoy and partake more fully of its benefits, than if 

 the same changes had occurred at an earlier period of the earth's 

 history." 



The analysis of several of the rocks has given interesting re- 

 sults. Those rocks particulaily which contain the alkalies and 



